Yet, in the past 1-2 years, there have been a lot of short selling, downgrades, negative press and bearish articles pushing solar stocks down to unbelievable levels, especially for the Chinese solar stocks. Their share price is lower than it was in 2007, but their 2010 revenue is approx. 300% higher. What gives?

There is a lot of frustration amongst solar investors with these Wall Street analysts, rating agencies, publications and short sellers. They claim that there is stock manipulation. Are they right?

In this article, I talk mainly about the Chinese solar stocks because their valuation is even more oppressed than for the American solar stocks. I use data about JA Solar (NASDAQ:JASO), but several Chinese solar companies have similar data.

EVIDENCE OF MANIPULATION?

JASO’s Q4 release showed that they grew by 211%, faster than almost all other growth companies including Apple, Netflix, Baidu, Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com and Akamai. According to this article, JASO, with a P/E of 5.3, reported 59 cents EPS, beating expectations of 48 cents. Nevertheless, S&P downgraded JASO to a “strong sell”.

S&P is the same company that gave AAA ratings (thru CDOs) to homeowners with no income, no job and no assets. This supported Washington’s goal of getting every American to buy a home. Yet, S&P wouldn’t give AAA ratings to most Canadian banks, which made billions and were amongst the most solid companies.

Value companies have flat revenues and low P/Es. Most Chinese solar companies have lower P/Es than value companies. But the Chinese companies are Growth, not Value companies, and they are growing faster than most growth companies.

The P/E range, for the companies growing slower than JASO, is 19 to 246. Using this P/E range, JASO's price should be $28 to $372. However, JASO is growing MUCH faster than these other companies and their 2011 guidance of 50% growth is almost guaranteed because 90% of the 2011 sales are under contract. Few companies can give this kind of guidance for 2011. Therefore, JASO's price should be much higher than $28 to $372.

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) is an American company with a P/E of 19, while most Chinese solar companies have P/Es that are half of that or less.

According to Nasdaq, 16% of JASO’s stock is shorted. This is much higher than for the average stock.

Chinese solar stocks were slammed on March 3, 2011, but not the American ones (First Solar, GT Solar and MEMC).

Wall Street’s publications, such as Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily and TheStreet, have published numerous negative articles about solar.

China Daily and Anhui News published articles stating that JASO and Hefei Government are investing 13.5 billion Yuan ($2 Billion) to build the world’s largest 3GW integrated solar production base because JASO’s CEO expects the solar market in China to grow several times to several hundred times in the next 5-10 years.

However, the Wall Street publications won’t publish this news, even though I brought it to the attention of Barron’s and TheStreet’s Eric Rosenbaum.

Last year, Wall Street media said that European subsidy cuts will hamper solar revenues by latter half of 2010. Many of the solar companies grew like crazy nevertheless.

Wall Street used declining gross margins as a reason to downgrade JASO. However, there’s no mention of JASO’s net income margin growing significantly. Also, some publications erroneously reported that JASO missed EPS expectations when it had beaten it.

Now, Wall Street is saying that revenues in 2011-2012 may be flat. How do they know, when they were wrong about 2010’s revenue? Even if it is flat, so what? Value companies with flat revenues have much higher P/Es than many Chinese solar companies.

However, many solar companies expect revenue to increase, and increase significantly.

Micron Technology, JDS Uniphase and NVIDIA are three of the fastest rising stocks this year. However, many of the Chinese solar companies’ 2010 revenue grew much faster than any of these three companies, and their 2011 revenue is going to grow much faster.

Also, since Obama’s campaign in 2007, he has wanted to build a green industry in the US. Recently, he passed a law requiring the Dept of Defense to buy solar panels from NON-Chinese companies. Here’s one of the articles describing this.

At his state of the union speech, Obama said:

"… Just recently, China became the home to the world's largest private solar research facility..."

CNBC is using the above clip to advertise their episodes on China vs US.

Washington wishes that the fast growing solar companies are American and Wall St knows this clearly. Wall Street is more than happy to help Washington squelch the Chinese solar companies for quid pro quo.

Quid pro quo is confirmed in the movie “Inside Job” and this article which states: “financial house might alter stock ratings in exchange for company business”. As you should know, Washington spends millions on fees to Wall Street, such as dealing with stocks from AIG, Citigroup, etc. A little quid pro quo may go a long way to getting more fees, relaxed regulations and bail outs.

In 2007, JASO and other Chinese solar stocks had much less revenue and profit and had a higher share price than today. Ever since Obama came into office two years ago, the reverse has happened to Chinese solar stocks.

IS IT IN AMERICA’S BEST INTEREST TO PROHIBIT PURCHASES FROM CHINESE COMPANIES?

Obama passed a “buy American only” law for solar panels.

There was a raging debate when Obama tried to pass a “buy American only” law for the stimulus package. Luckily for the US, this was rejected for good reason. “Buy American only” is protectionism, which is anti-free trade. If you believe in free-trade where you want other countries to buy your products, such as GM cars, IBM computers, Cisco routers, Android phones, iPhones, iPads, Boeing planes, Caterpillar trucks, etc., should you ban the purchase of their products in your country? Is this hypocrisy?

Besides, the worst part is that protectionism can make each country poorer. When countries saw their GDPs contract and unemployment go up in the early 1930’s, they passed protectionist laws, which reduced trade between countries, which helped bring on the Great Depression. In 2009, all of the experts in the US agreed that the US should not adopt protectionism, for its own good in the long run.

HOW COMMON IS STOCK MANIPULATION?

Oscar Best Documentary award-winner Charles Ferguson began his acceptance speech by reminding us that three years after our worst financial meltdown, the subject of his movie, "not a single financial executive has gone to jail."

His movie “Inside Job” documents the massive fraud and corruption on Wall Street and Washington, how the two are in bed with each other and showing that even the supposed unbiased economic professors, such as Larry Summers, are in the back pocket of Wall St.

Ben Graham, Warren Buffet’s mentor, wrote about the unethical “shenanigans” and “manipulation” that he witnessed during his 40+ years on Wall Street. This did not end after he died. In 2008:

S&P, Moody’s and Fitch gave AAA ratings to CDOs

Bear Stearn’s hedge fund told investors to buy when their internal emails said it was imploding

Goldman Sachs promoted and sold CDOs while they shorted it by buying CDSs from AIG

Taxpayers bailed out AIG so that Goldman Sachs can cash in on all of the CDSs

Quid pro quo is very common on Wall Street. Most firms have Investment Banking, which is the bread winner, and Research. They are supposed to maintain a “Chinese Wall” (not related to Chinese stocks), which is supposed to separate the information and operations of these two departments. Sometimes the research department will downgrade a company that is a client of the investment banking department, to a “hold” or “sell”. This infuriates the client, which comes down hard on the investment bankers, which come down hard on the research department. Consequently, the research department may change the rating to a “buy” or “hold”. For non-clients, they would have no issue downgrading. The ratings are suspect at best and unreliable quite often. Therefore, if firms want to use their downgrades as a tool to manipulate, it is quite easy.

Even with SEC’s reputation for incompetence, they charged several firms with Insider Trading last year. One can imagine how many charges there would be if SEC was competent. Recently, SEC charged Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs board member for insider trading. Berkshire Hathaway told GS that they were going to invest $5 Billion. Gupta told the manager of a hedge fund, that he has invested in, about this tip. Hedge fund manager buys 175,000 shares of GS before news is released. Gupta profits $900K. Others related to this, profited $13 million.

Insider trading happens all the time and always will. If Wall Street can do insider trading, then stock manipulation is child’s play.

Imagine this scenario. A ratings agency, analyst or media publication tells his proprietary trading desk, hedge fund manager or cousin to short a solar stock. Then the ratings agency or analyst issues a downgrade, or the media publication publishes some bogus negative report, such as the recent article about the Italian subsidy cap. Their downgrade or report is read by thousands or millions of people. (Your tiny little posting on a message board is barely read.) Stock drops. They profit.

Stock manipulation always happened and always will.

This report on short selling found that “…on trading days when there is an abnormally high level of short selling, there is a heightened level of negative news about the issuer in the non-trading hours that follow” “…where an issuer is the subject of negative news in the non-trading hours between one trading day and the next, the share price reaction when trading resumes is less pronounced where there has been an abnormally high level of short selling the day before.” “An analysis of our findings suggests that three news related types of short selling - traders who sell short after obtaining confidential information that an issuer is about to make a negative announcement, traders who sell short and then spread false stories, and traders who, by collecting and analyzing publicly available data, detect that an issuer’s share price exceeds its fundamental value, sell short and then truthfully spread their conclusions…”

For the above second scenario, does the short seller have to spread false stories? What about spreading news of possible Italian subsidy caps that never come?

Nevertheless, some short sellers do spread false stories, such as the case with UAL, which caused their share price to plunge 75%. That would have been very profitable for the short sellers.

Somebody with a pen (or computer) can steal way more from you than somebody with a gun.

HOW RELIABLE ARE THE MEDIA AND SEC?

Well, we all know about the SEC’s track record. They didn’t detect Madoff’s ponzi scheme even though George Papadopoulos warned them three times.

Some media can be good, but some can be quite unreliable. Think of Fox News or CNN during the Iraq war. The founding fathers said that democracy can only work if the media acts as a check and balance, by criticizing and verifying the government’s claims. That is a critical role for media. However, during the Iraq war, there wasn’t one piece of criticism. Instead, Fox and CNN were beating the war drums and acting as spin-doctor mouthpieces for Bush. They helped Bush brainwash 70% of Americans into believing that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11.

The media is supposed to work for you, the reader. They are supposed to do investigative reporting to “keep them honest”. After CNN was criticized and censured, they adopted the “keeping them honest” mantra. How often has the media on Wall Street, such as Barron’s, TheStreet, IBD, etc., kept them honest? How many insider trading or stock manipulation cases have the Wall Street media exposed?

Barron’s and TheStreet published articles on possible Italian subsidy caps. So what? The cap is a proposal, which didn’t say how much of an effect it would be, and if passed, it wouldn’t be in effect until 2012. Next day, Italy announces that there is no cap. I suggested to them that they investigate and write about the bizarre P/E ratios of Chinese solar stocks. No response.

HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS

The big advantage of buying a stock where there is a big short interest, is that if the price goes up, there will be a big short squeeze, which pushes the price up even more.

The AAA ratings of CDOs from S&P helped boost the prices of homes. However, fundamentals and truth usually prevail in the long run. Households making $40K cannot afford $400K homes. The fundamentals do not support this. Prices came down.

The same could happen with JASO. The price seems likely manipulated and oppressed by short sellers.

If Wall Street is manipulating the Chinese solar stocks, they can’t keep them down forever. The pressure will continue building until the foot cannot keep it down anymore. JASO’s P/E is now 4.68, which is outrageous. In 3-6 months, when JASO’s earnings continue growing and their P/E goes down towards 3, any Wall Street firm that downgrades JASO will appear like they are manipulating and short selling.

The Chinese solar stocks are similar to what Michael Burry buys and what Ben Graham recommends, as they like to buy a stock that is temporarily or unjustifiably depressed. They believe that the fundamentals and truth usually win in the long run. This happened with S&P’s AAA rating of CDOs. This might happen with S&P’s downgrade of JASO.

When the fundamentals eventually prevail, this is how Burry, Graham and Buffet profit immensely.

IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG

Please help spread awareness of this blog. Click on the “Recommend” button. Tell other investors. Complain to the SEC.

As mentioned previously, those who control the media, control the opinions and beliefs of the masses. Fox and CNN were able to help Bush brainwash 70% of Americans into believing that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 through spin. Small-time radio stations tried to clear up this brainwashing, but nobody hears a mouse squeak in a hole.

Wall Street media rarely publishes anything positive about the Chinese solar stocks. Even if they do, it’s not loud enough to quell the downgrades and short selling. Besides, the founding fathers said that the media is crucial to the success of democracy. They said the role of the media is to keep the authority in check and balance by exposing anything unethical. How many times have the Wall Street media exposed stock manipulation? How many Wall Street professionals have the media helped put behind bars?

SeekingAlpha articles get picked up by Yahoo Finance. SeekingAlpha will not publish my blog as an article until I send them 2-3 writing samples, which I hope to work on shortly.

If you like this blog, we need all the help we can get. It’s David versus Goliath.

CHALLENGE WALL STREET

If you agree with this blog, then you should write to these people:

The reporter at Barron’s who wrote about the Italian subsidy caps that never came, is Ray Tiernan at Tiernan.Ray@barrons.com. His editor is Greg.Bartalos@barrons.com. His editor-in-chief is Randall.Forsyth@barrons.com.

The reporter of the Bloomberg article about Gabelli shorting JASO, is Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net. The editor is Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net.

The Forbes Editor, in regards to Eric Savitz’s blog, is at readers@forbes.com

Below is what I wrote to them. You can copy it if you like, but if you modify it, you’ll likely get more attention from them.

These Wall Street ratings based on European subsidy cuts are getting old and boring. Wall Street has been using them for over a year to beat down solar stocks, yet solar companies have grown faster than almost any other growth company.

JASO said revenue will increase by 50% in 2011 and 90% of 2011’s sales is already under contract. How many companies can say that?

Yet, Collins Stewart, Stifel Nicolaus and S&P downgraded JASO.

S&P is the same company that gave AAA ratings (thru CDOs) to homeowners with no income, no job and no assets. Yet, S&P wouldn’t give AAA ratings to most Canadian banks, which made billions and were amongst the most solid companies.

Imagine this:

A company’s revenue is dropping by 50% per year, losing money and gives you guidance that their revenue and losses will get worse in the next year and this is guaranteed because 90% of their customers have already committed by law that they won’t buy anymore. Then a Wall Street firm gives the company a “strong buy”.

This is the kind of rating that Wall Street gives.

================================

Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net replied with this:

================================

we actually did report the new JA Solar plant

================================

I replied with this:

================================

Is that the only part of the blog that you dispute?

Why didn't you report about JASO CEO's comment on China Daily's and Anhui News' articles, that the CEO expects the solar market in China to be several times to several hundreds times in 5-10 years?

If that is the only part of the blog that you dispute, then you agree that the rest is possible and maybe likely?

Why don't you do some investigative reporting into this? Why don't you investigate and write about the bizarre P/E ratios, and how even with these ridiculously low P/Es, Wall Street still spreads FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt)? (FUD was a common strategy by sales people to beat competitors.)

Isn't the media supposed to work for their readers? Aren't we your end-customers? Or, do you work like Fox? The documentary "The Corporation" showed how Fox works more for its advertisers than its viewers, and hence covers up negative news of their advertisers.

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I agree wholeheartedly. Well written and researched article that confirms a lot of what goes on on Wall St., especially in regard to the most advanced sector of the economy, clean tech broadly and Chinese solar silicon PV specifically.

many of these companies should move to more honest exchanges.. It's clear the scum in the WHITE HOUSE has an agenda..Obama thinks you are so dumb to think price parity can be achieved this century using UNION LABOR to build alternative energy in the USA...

There is saying, when the snow melts, the truth will be self evident. With global warming, the foolish wall streeters and deniers can never hide the truth for ever. They can short sell as much as they want, but at the end, they will have to buy the shares back, meantime one should accumulate at bargain prices, that is a gift.

One way to hurt short sellers is to tell your broker that you do not wish to make your shares available for short selling if you buy them on cash basis. By law they cannot then make them available for short selling, whether they abide by your request is a different ball game, but it is a right step in the right direction. The less shares available for short selling, the more difficult it becomes for orchestrated short selling schemes to implement. Now that is not to say that there are no naked short selling in wall street.

Another way to protect your investment is to buy put options as an insurance policy, should you lose on the shares temporarily, you can profit on the puts, take those profits and reinvest in additional shares right after options expirations date. That way you continue to add to your positions and average cost down. You should not buy more than 1-3 ratio, meaning one contract for each 300 shares. But you should be familiar with what to buy or you can lose more money.

Tell your broker that he can not use your share for short sales(or lend your shares), my friend did exactly that and Merrill Lynch sent him a letter and told him is account was being closed because it did not fit their criteria for their profile of accounts they desire. He had over $100,000 in his account, but they made him move it 6 month after he made the change to not allow them to use his share. These brokers are dirty, especially the Big Boys. Scottrade allows this restriction, they are not crooked. It is the right thing to do, but like you say, they Big Brokers just do illegal naked shorting and have no margin calls either. It is a crooked card game, we all play in. You are right stay off margin, that is how they whip you off your long positions, do not use stop losses they can see where they are(prices) and take it down to knock you off your shares. The best is to take your time and establish long term positions on price declines, and just hold long term. If you want to get fancy, I like the idea of selling puts on run ups and then buying more shares when the manipulate the prices down, they always do.

Politicians are all whores for hire and lobbyists are the pimps. Oil companies, insurance companies, defense contractors and hedge funds are some of the biggest "contributors" to the Washington prostitutes. With both hands down the pants of the lobbyists, how is the "common man" supposed to get any representation?

We need to end lobbying and special interest legislation and we also need to end the "lifetime entitlement program" that our elected "Whores" now enjoy.

I appreciate your thoughts on this subject.Certainly something is going on.The growth in Chinese solar stocks is amazing...but there is no corresponding PPS growth.I do think that there has been manipulation.

A company’s revenue is dropping by 50% per year, losing money and gives you guidance that their revenue and losses will get worse in the next year and this is guaranteed because 90% of their customers have already committed by law that they won’t buy anymore. Then a Wall Street firm gives the company a “strong buy”.

Tell your broker that he can not use your share for short sales(or lend your shares), my friend did exactly that and Merrill Lynch sent him a letter and told him is account was being closed because it did not fit their criteria for their profile of accounts they desire. He had over $100,000 in his account, but they made him move it 6 month after he made the change to not allow them to use his share. These brokers are dirty, especially the Big Boys. Scottrade allows this restriction, they are not crooked. It is the right thing to do, but like you say, they Big Brokers just do illegal naked shorting and have no margin calls either. It is a crooked card game, we all play in. You are right stay off margin, that is how they whip you off your long positions, do not use stop losses they can see where they are(prices) and take it down to knock you off your shares. The best is to take your time and establish long term positions on price declines, and just hold long term. If you want to get fancy, I like the idea of selling puts on run ups and then buying more shares when the manipulate the prices down, they always do

I think that Obama and US security forces are planning riots in China. Mendelev (Soviet primiere) came out and said as much about 10 days ago. The reason for the US to support riots in China: the Chinese don't want any more US debt. Go figure. And, China wants to buy Mideast oil with their currency. This threatens US banks which need their petro-dollars to survive. This is a modern style trade war, and Chinese solars are collateral damage. I'm staying because the Chinese solars are pocketing a lot of money, I don't think the riots will overthrow the Chinese government, and I like the technology.

The "Quid pro quo"-system is alright if your shares are on the inside of the system. Then your stock trades at 20+pe(and this is where First Solar(FSLR) is, obviously). A normal valuation would be somewhere in the, say, 10-15 range (given a slow, steady growth).

Watching the chinese solars fall to somewhere around 2-8, seems very odd, and the contrast to their American peers is striking. These shares are on the outside of the Qpq, and as you say, they are haunted by downgrades and bad Street stories.

I wonder if these companies really needs a listing in the US, when they come under constant political attack. Maybe the US has realized its Rare Earth blunder by now, and want to strongly promote it's own industry?

Someone mentioned that GCL-POLY is trading at pe 20-25 in Hong Kong. We might all change our brokers to someone who allows trading there - and the companies themselves should move their listings away from all the Wall Street nonsense and politics.

I have NEVER seen companies with these growth rates valued at these multiples. It's crazy. If you don't believe the story above, buy the shares right now. Loads of them.

"Italian Minister of Economic Development, Paolo Romano, remarked that there is, “No cut, no cap, no stop to the manufacturing sector development has ever been envisaged.”"

blogs.barrons.com/tech.../"Italy is under a “binding commitment” by the an EU directive to get 17% of its electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020, and this is the first time an EU goal has been binding on member states."

Several articles were published about this Italian cap and subsidy cut, that never came. It seems like Wall Street is trying to spread FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) and using this FUD to downgrade solar stocks. FUD is a common strategy used by sales people to kill their competition. However, Wall Street don’t retract their downgrades when it is shown the FUD is not true. For the past year, Wall Street has been writing articles about European subsidy cuts and warned about potential drop off in solar revenue. Yet, most Chinese solar companies grew like crazy and gave 2011 guidance that other growth companies only wish they can give.

JASO expects 2011 shipments to be 50% higher with 90% of 2011's shipments under contract. How many other companies can say this? JASO’s P/E was 5.3, and Wall Street still spreads FUD and downgrades JASO. Now, JASO’s P/E is 4.5 and Wall Street still spreads FUD and downgrades Chinese solar stocks.

Imagine this:

A company’s revenue is dropping by 50% per year, losing money and gives you guidance that their revenue and losses will get worse in the next year and this is guaranteed because 90% of their customers have already committed by law that they won’t buy anymore. Then a Wall Street firm gives the company a “strong buy”.

This is the kind of rating that Wall Street gives.

China Daily and Anhui News published articles stating JASO’s CEO expects the solar market in China to grow several times to several hundred times in the next 5-10 years.

However, the Wall Street publications won’t publish this news, even though I brought it to the attention of Barron’s Ray Tiernan and TheStreet’s Eric Rosenbaum. Why won’t you? Why do you quote mainly or only solar bears? Is Gordon Johnson a good friend or relative of yours? Why don’t you quote solar bulls? Are you anti-Chinese solar stocks because you’re anti-Chinese RTOs? (Chinese solars are not RTOs.) Why don’t you investigate and write about the bizarre P/E ratios of solar stocks?

Author’s reply »
I replied to HerbOnTheStreet@cnbc.com with this message:

======================...

Dear Herb:

These solar analysts have been wrong, over and over and over and over again. Why do people keep their jobs when they are so incompetent? Not only have they've been wrong, the Chinese solar companies have gone in the EXTREME opposition direction. They have grown faster than Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google and on and on and on. Not only have they exploded in growth, their 2011 guidance is spectacular. Yet, Wall Street analysts still downgrade Chinese solar stocks with FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt). Don't you find this is to be a little strange?

"In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the public. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."

Journalists are supposed to "bare the secrets" and "expose deception". How often have Wall Street journalists, such as Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC, Barron's, etc., exposed deception?

Why won't you investigate the bizarre P/Es and FUD in the solar space?

You did not reply with any disagreement. Therefore, is it not possible that there is some foul play going on? Is it not possible that solar stocks are being manipulated? If so, why won't you investigate it?

Author’s reply »
The Founding Fathers said that the press should "censure", "bare the secrets", "inform the public" and "expose deception".

It seems like it's impossible to get Wall Street press to investigate. Is it possible that they don’t want to investigate because they don’t want to find out that the culprit is a friend, relative, employee or “contributor”?

The documentary "The Corporation" showed how the media, such as Fox, does not serve the viewers completely, because the media gets censored by their real boss: their advertisers.

Is it possible that Wall Street media, such as CNBC, Barron’s, TheStreet, etc., are serving the “governors”, not the “governed”.

According to the movie “Lions for Lambs”, the media did not “censure the government” during the Iraq war because they were afraid of losing access to the high-ranking politicians and therefore, afraid of losing the ability to get the newest scoop before other media outlets.

Is it possible that Wall Street media is thinking this?: “If we investigate and find the culprit in company XYZ, the other staff from XYZ, or all Wall Street firms, will be reluctant to talk to us in the future.”

“As for solar, when solar stocks were rising on Japan’s nuclear problems, I was on air here suggesting that it was a classic knee jerk reaction. The fundamentals have not changed and neither have their future. Today, instead of bucking the trend, solar’s actually joining it.…LDK Solar off about 5%, First Solar holding up okay, down only 2%...”

How have the fundamentals not changed?

Both nuclear and solar generate electricity.

According to CNBC.com today:

(www.cnbc.com/id/42107252): “In a demonstration of the qualms about nuclear power that the crisis has triggered around the globe, China announced that it was suspending approvals for planned plants and would launch a comprehensive safety check of facilities.”

(www.cnbc.com/id/42114233): “Merkel announced on Tuesday that all nuclear plants which began operating before 1980 -- seven out of 17 German reactors -- would shut down until at least June for safety checks…One shut down is already under way. Bavaria's Isar 1 reactor will go offline by Thursday…It is likely to be followed by EnBW's Neckarwestheim”

Isn’t the above news, good news for the solar’s fundamentals? Especially, when your solar bears have repeated for the past year, that Germany is one of the biggest solar markets?

Before the Japanese disaster, JA Solar’s CEO said that the solar market in China will be several times to several hundred times larger in the next 5-10 years. Isn’t it possible that the above news, speeds this up?

If the fundamentals haven’t changed for solars, then why did LDK (a Chinese company) drop by 5% and First Solar (an American company) drop by only 2%? Shouldn’t they drop by the same amount?

Regardless of the above, are you saying that the solar fundamentals have not been great before the Japanese disaster?

Your solar bears kept talking about a possible Italian cap and subsidy cut. Yet, the Italian Minister of Economic Development said, “No cut, no cap, no stop to the manufacturing sector development has ever been envisaged.”

See below. Are you saying that these are not great fundamentals?:

- Revenue grew 211% from 2009 to 2010- Revenue grew 337% from 2007 to 2010- Net income grew 338% from 2007 to 2010- Gave explosive, crystal-clear guidance that is backed by law (50% growth in 2011 with 90% of the 2011’s sales already under contract)- …has a P/E of 4.5.

Please show me a non-solar company with the above. Please give me one example and I will shut up. Please, I beg you.

Author’s reply »
I replied to Herb Greenberg of CNBC with this message:

========================

Dear Herb:

Thanks for replying. Thanks for answering one of my questions. However, you ignored all of my other questions. If you're a stocks commentator, can you not comment on all of my other questions?

JASO's numbers are so bizarre that they are almost unique amongst the thousands of stocks traded in the world:

- Revenue grew 211% from 2009 to 2010- Revenue grew 337% from 2007 to 2010- Net income grew 338% from 2007 to 2010- Wall Street always wants good guidance. However, as CNBC reported, many companies don't even give guidance anymore. JASO gave explosive, crystal-clear guidance that is backed by law (50% growth in 2011 with 90% of the 2011’s sales already under contract)- P/E of 4.5

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I think there are over 5,000 stocks on NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX. How many of those stocks have similar numbers, guidance and P/E as JASO, other than Chinese stocks? Can you show me one? Just one?

"if i went thru detaild analysis of every letter like yours i received i would never get any work done! balancing act!

herb"

================

Herb will report FUD (Fear Uncertainty & Doubt) repeatedly on CNBC to bash Chinese solar stocks, but will not report or investigate the extremely bizarre financials (phenomenal growth and unbelievably low P/E), which probably lie in one to two standard deviations outside the norm and which contradict his bearishness.

I'm confused by your comment. You insinuated on TV that solar stocks don't have good fundamentals. Therefore, you must've already analyzed their numbers, no?

I presented to you the highest-level, non-detail, fundamental numbers you can find. In fact, my numbers represent the forest. Wall Street firms bash Chinese solar stocks by focusing on the trees (details).

- TOP LINE grew 211% from 2009 to 2010- TOP LINE grew 337% from 2007 to 2010- BOTTOM LINE grew 338% from 2007 to 2010- Guidance: 50% growth in shipments in 2011 with 90% of 2011’s TOP LINE already under contract- P/E of 4.5

You look at stocks all the time. How many stocks have similar HIGH-LEVEL numbers as JASO? Can you show me one? Just one?

Fun day with JASO today. Next to those already mentioned, others in turn join the downgrading, regardless of whatever fundamentals are driving the stocks up:

Piper Jaffray has downgraded JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd on the 14th of March (NASDAQ: JASO) to Neutral from Overweight. Next day, Tuesday 15th, JASO closes @ 7.14 up 6.73% after having already gained similar amounts on Monday.

"JASO has jumped nearly 3% today, even after Piper Jaffray downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "overweight." However, with the shares trading well below short-term resistance at their 10-day moving average, this looks a little bit like a dead-cat bounce for JASO."www.schaeffersresearch...

Morgan Stanley seems less assured of all this downpressure, but they too don't see much upside either:"JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) Cut target to $9.00 at Morgan Stanley."

One of the few sites that have actually recommended JASO writes:"China Sunergy (NASDAQ:CSUN), Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ), and JA solar (NASDAQ:JASO) have approached theoretical lows and are ready to move higher. LDK Solar (NYSE:LDK) is also considered oversold and should prominent names of the sector move higher, chances are that LDK won't sit tight either."www.chinavestor.com/te...

CSUN is up 4.92% today.CSIQ 10.33%LDK 9.33%

Also, while following the trading of JASO today it became remarkably noticeable that it suddenly hit a wall at 7.13-7.16 about an hour before market closing time. All of a sudden ask size goes up to 1200-1500, sells off, and then jumps back to 1200+ again, repeat a few times, and the stock creates a flat-line. Demand was strong as well though and ran up as high as 600.

It might be a nice call to hope that short sellers will soon have to back themselves creating a short squeeze, but seeing these kind of numbers you'll have to be careful that there won't be more bogus downgrades, combined with bogus news, combined with only one real factor, massive short selling. I'm not planning to outsmart a manipulated stock, but I'll ride this one up for a while. If you look back at what JASO was worth already in 2008, there's no good reason why it shouldn't reach those prices and higher again.

TY, to my father for his career in water pollution leadership and stock investing, he led my siblings and me, as an environmentalist, for 50+ years. TY to AG for his not too distant continuance of environmental concern and leadership. TY for this fine article.I have wondered at the reason for Obama's protectionist attitude toward c-Si, within a global warming emergency, in combination with the PRC valuing the Renminbi (in relation to the Chinese solar stocks)….an attempt for market control of the c-Si industry. (I feel so what! Give the PRC solar, save the energy seeking world for all our children, just get it done!) As a new kid on the block PRC with the drive, desire and money to succeed, let that newbie go and wait for good things to happen, ESPECIALLY with c-Si.Lastly, I would like to say thank you to Mr. Xiaofeng Peng of LDK, and Dr. Zhengrong Shi of STP. The doctor supported Mr. Peng while learning the solar industry. In my opinion, Mr. Peng is a natural capitalist. Mr. Peng might be considered a first generation capitalist and great success, who liquidated his wealth and success from his safety equipment business and decided to save the world with c-Si, about 10 years ago and created LDK. LDK is situated in the Greenest Province in PRC. The mountains surrounding the Provence are world renown and hold the history and roots to the beginnings of Mao and his Red Army.... A very traditional and caring statistician was Mao, for the peasant and laborer seemed his governmental concern. He began as that concerned leader before the world competition internally and externally made his rule mad, a failure, or both, as we in the west see him. Is there a coincidence that worker struggle happened circa the first two decades of the last century? The Bolsheviks uprising, The Spanish civil war and Geo Orwell, The Wobblies and the Montana Mine workers, and the PRC Red army lead by Mao. The world goes through struggle and single minded thought-pathways.May this Japanese triple catastrophe lend thought to the world crisis with energy and the threat we will leave to our children, for a needed coming of alternative energy. We can pick up the bow and arrow a couple of decades from now if we need to, when the heating and cooling of Aunt Mabel’s is GREEN, we are fatter and there is less room per person. Red Scare? I like RED foreign cars….MG Midgets Rule!!!May China save the energy economic environment with c-Si for all, if America cannot get it together.ChangeItOrDrownItPS Great Article Curt0, TY again. I will save and re read it, “little brother”…George?

Author’s reply »
I sent the message below to readers@forbes.com, Greg.Bartalos@barrons.... Randall.Forsyth@barrons.com, Tiernan.Ray@barrons.com, Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomber.net, scoop@huffingtonpost.com, Belinda and David at Lcao4@bloomberg.net and papadopoulos@bloomberg... Herb Greenberg at HerbOnTheStreet@cnbc.com.

==================

CNBC cites stock manipulation

In the appendix below, CNBC explains massive stock manipulation.

If crooks can manipulate the entire market, isn’t it plausible that crooks can manipulate a few Chinese solar stocks?seekingalpha.com/insta...

"In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the public. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."

In the mid-morning of March 16, 2011, news came out that the EU energy minister had claimed the Japanese nuclear crisis is out of control. This caused the market to plunge. Later, the EU energy minister’s spokesperson tried to clarify it by saying that this was not based on anything new or privileged information. It didn’t matter. The damage was done.

CNBC explains how this was likely stock manipulation. You can watch it here:

Melissa Lee: “What started as a quiet day on the market, turned into a violent sell off around 11 AM eastern time on the back of the EU Energy Minister’s comments about the Japan nuclear situation, talking about catastrophes happening in a matter of hours. But Dr. J actually saw some unusual activity which raised some eyebrows…”

Jon Najarian: “Yeah, well, in a host of indices and in particular Nasdaq and S&P. The S&P, if you took a look at the March 12 25…puts. They were bought, about 5,000 of them were bought like bang, bang, bang, bang. And then 4 minutes before 11 o’clock, to Melissa’s point, it’s started hitting on Twitter that they re-purposed some of that information, about that EU Energy Minister. Then, next thing you know, both Dow Jones and Reuters put it out, as if it was new news again, which to me was not new news. This was 8 hours old. And the markets went into a free fall. We went down from about 45, 50 points negative in the Dow Jones industrials to over 200 and the fear was lit in everybody’s trading room and the next thing you saw was people basically just run for the hills. And those options that were purchased for about 90 cents, in the case of the S&P March 12 25 puts, went to $7.60. [Jon Najarian snaps his finger]”

Melissa Lee: “Did you see them being sold immediately afterwards?”

Jon Najarian: “No, I did see most of them being sold around $3, and then they re-loaded, basically when, strangely enough, the US energy people came out and started commenting about moving Americans outside of Tokyo and telling them to stay in their homes, if they stay there, and all that sort of thing. I mean, the fear mongering here, folks, is on a level I’ve not seen before. Some of it’s suspicious, like I say because, it’s been repurposed, this information. If you’re just smart and you make a great trade, kudos to you. If you’re somebody who then basically puts out information to create fear to the upside or downside, that seems pretty close to criminal.”

Melissa Lee: “JJ…based on your experience, does this also strike you as odd?”

JJ: “Yes, I think Jon’s 100% right. And, you know, one of the lessons in it for the viewers, I think, is actually, we are in expiration week. It’s a quadruple expiration…”

Is it possible that people are “repurposing” news articles about potential, possible Italian solar subsidy cuts and caps, which never come?

1.Making sure if it's harmful or not to current US base Chinese solar shareholder before moving list from wallstreet to oversea stock market. (anyone know?)

2.Send letter to those Chinese solar firm to persuade them to remove the list on wallstreet if we sure current shareholder won't be harmed.

3.Spreading the word about this story to tell how wallstreet degenerated

4.Way to spread the word may be via sending letter to government of other country, our government, media, setting up specific website.....

Result1.Wallstreet will shrink and US will loss her financial domination position over the world.2.US government awake by the fact that we are really fall behind China in Green energy industry. They should face this fact but hide the head into the sand.3.Wallstreet will keep degeneration under indulgence of current government policy, and Wallstreet won't rebuild their ethic until anothergreater impact.4. Am I right?

Author’s reply »
My blog has many unanswered questions. I've asked those questions to several members of the press, but no satisfactory answers. I've included their e-mail addresses above. I encourage you to contact them as well. Feel free to copy and paste any of my content here.

Curt...thanks for the very informative article, and more (or just as much) so for the follow up letters you have been sending. You are taking leadership on behalf of those like myself who are new to this, and are feeling overwhelmed, yet have confidence in some of these companies (I am LDK long: 6,000 shares). I have filed a general complaint to SEC, and feel the more of these they get the more they will have to focus some energy on looking onto what is going on. I will be talking to my broker (TD Waterhouse in Canada) about not lending out my shares for shorting (I don't know their policy, but asking them is a good start).

I hope others (especially those with more knowledge and access to info than me) will take some action. We can whine all we like, but that doesn't help change the situation.

I appreciate your approach and your respectful challenges to the media and the funds. Truth does always win out in the end. Keep it up!

You and other readers will hopefully find this very short video by a 20 year old as powerful as I do. It really does challenge us to make choices and act......

The background: "This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Read and listen to it forward and back...Take a minute and watch it.

The WS. NYSE. Investment Banksters Hedge Funds doing their computer assisted naked short sellings of FTD. shares of the Chinese Solar sector companies , racketeering in collusion with each other blatantly violating the USA. RICO. Laws , have paid off , bribed , and control the financial Media , CNBC. , SEC. , FINRA. , all Gov.'t Regulators that can do anything to stop them , USA. Politicians , and now it seems to be the case , also the USA. FBI. and Justice Dept. !

I just read this article and was surprised to see a comment of mine (from another article) mentioned. So I dug up the comment and am reposting it here.

"You may be on to something. I believe there is a decided bias against renewable energy on Wall St. The status quo of fossil fuels is what they support. Global warming denial is rampant in conservative circles. The American Chamber of Commerce is a source of global warming denial disinformation, as is the Wall St. Journal. Despite the claims of those who call themselves skeptics, the worldwide scientific community is nearly unanimous in agreement on AGW. Virtually every major scientific organization in the world agrees with the IPCC, as do 97% of active climate scientists. The earth science faculty of every major university in the world agrees with the IPCC. But GOP congressmen are nearly unanimous in denial of the science. They prefer the opinions of non scientists, like Monckton, Watts, etc., and fossil fuel industry paid contrarian scientists like Richard Lindzen, Pat Michaels, Fred Singer etc. At least 80 GOP congressmen have taken the Koch pledge to vote against climate change legislation. The Koch brothers are the single largest funder of climate change denial disinformation and PR.

Sen Inhofe's favorite climate expert was science fiction writer Michael Crichton, for heavens sake. (Crichton died last year)80% of oil industry political donations go to GOP and 90% for the coal industry.

Despite the rants of the deniers, the science has only gotten stronger. Climate gate was a manufactured phony scandal. Seven different investigations have now cleared all scientists of wrong doing or fudging the science. The whole thing was concocted by quote mining thousands of emails and then taking a few lines out of context and twisting their meaning, into a supposed worldwide conspiracy by climate scientists. The real scam on the other hand is very well documented.

Read: "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming"by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway

You will learn that Fred Singer, for instance, has been an "expert" scientist, always on the side of the relevent industries, on topics from acid rain, asbestos, CFCs that damage the ozone layer, tobacco dangers, global warming.But for climate change deniers, this guy is a hero.

Read up on Monckton, who GOP congressmen have at least twice called to testify in House commitee hearings as their "expert witness".Moncton has no science training whatsoever. He has a degree in journalism and is a complete charlatan, who has been debunked so many times you could write a series of books on it. But for the GOP in congress, he is their expert. In fact he was their only witness for a hearing at the Select Committee On Energy Independence and Global Warming in May 2010.

To see just how absurd Monckton is, check out this video of Professor John Abraham debunking every single claim Monckton made at a college presentation.

Check them out and then ponder why we just elected a House full of anti science global warming deniers, who think they can legislate away global warming. Hate to tell them, but nature doesn't negotiate.

This might shed some light on why renewable energy stocks are constantly being talked down by analysts."

"A recent bill introduced in the Montana legislature would have declared, by law, that there is no climate change....... Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has recently introduced a bill that would, again, by fiat, with no scientific study whatever, overturn the EPAs finding that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to public health....."

Read this last one and then contemplate the fact that Monckton is condsidered a climate change expert by the GOP congress.

This is who Republicans brought to a U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing as an expert witness. Energy and Commerce Committee Minority Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) referred to Monckton, in his opening remarks, as being "generally regarded as one of the most knowledgeable, if not the most knowledgeable, experts on the skeptic side". (Remember Joe Barton who apologised to BP when Obama made them put up $20 billion after the Gulf oil gusher?)

Then, in May 2010, U.S House Republicans chose Monckton as their only expert witness for a hearing at the Select Committee On Energy Independence and Global Warming

We need adults in congress, adults who are based in reality and respect science more than their own political ideology.

GE is investing $600 million in Solar. Does GE have it wrong with the fundamentals of solar? Or is this Jeff Immelt's "quid pro quo" for becoming Obama's Head of Economic Advisory Panel? If this is "quid pro quo", shouldn't the Journalists at CNBC investigate this?

Google Invests ($168 million) in World's Largest Solar Power Tower Plant:mashable.com/2011/04/1.../Does Google have it wrong with the fundamentals of solar, as well?

Dear Curt:I have found your recent work potential, and meeting some of my concerns. I have followed and invested with Chinese c-Si for almost three years. Often I find American solar manufacturing information confusing and outright frustrating. I have had no real proof Wall Street and that reporting system might be consistently pushing a negative picture on China in an attempt to influence stock prices, but I felt it to be so. If I did, I did not know illegalities were being perpetrated. I had been quietly feeling a "player/Wall Street influence" might in fact be happening, but as an individual investor with less than five years and a few hundred trades, I felt after my personal harsh attitude then my mental frustrated readjustments from the American reporting, might be warranted as an accepted investment system. The continual circumstance by our press seemed unwarranted in honest investing though. My actual belief in an inside job began with Tellurium and Jack Lifton: <www.resourceinvestor.c...; and other J. L. work. Another real eye opener came to me when I found this Congressional report by James Inhofe for distribution on the floor for the Senate, the day of an influential energy bill. This Congressional Report simplicity is overwhelming; the inaccuracy of Solar within this "info report" is a crime in itself. Please see: <epw.senate.gov/public/...;. My copy of this report is a pdf file. I have a copy. The first page is a senate seal. I will try to give a web download address vial a search. If you cannot download a copy, PLEASE contact me for a copy and I will upload a copy from my PC. The 24 pages are so simple a read, it will take 5-15 minutes tops! The solar is very under stated. I have studied China solar for three years intensely and this is a bunch of cr*p.Sincerely,ChangeItOrDrownItDon

Yah gotta love Senator Inhofe. After six investigations cleared all scientists and the East Anglia research facility of any wrong doing, Inhofe demanded another investigation. It came to the exact same conclusions as the other six. Yet, Inhofe, Barton, Upton and others are still conducting a witch hunt against climate scientists. What's going on in Congress is an anti science circus, where scientificly illiterate congressmen throw out every absurd urban legend believed by deniers, and show no respect for actual scientists . (other than their industry shills like John Christy, Pat Michaels, etc.) You know how Archie Bunker could sound so stupid, when he thought he was being clever? It's kinda like that. But this really isn't funny. * One of the congressmen brought up the tired skeptic argument that "scientists in the eventies were warning us about a coming ice age, now they claim it's global warming." John Christy, their only climate scientist witness, encouraged the repitition of this bogus argument. Real scientists don't do that kind of thing. Not that he isn't a scientist, but that he wasn't totally honest, because he knows it's a completely discredited argument.*In case anyone is wondering, cooling was a minor hypothesis, with 7 scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals. During the same time period, there were 44 papers published that pointed toward greenhouse gas warming from human emissions. All the scientists who were involved with the 7 cooling papers changed their minds before long. The cooling research was actually an offshoot of nuclear winter research. Sulpher oxides and other aerosols we emit into the atmosphere reflect incoming sunlight, causing a cooling effect. We have cut down on aerosols becaue of acid rain, smog etc.

The greenhouse effect was discovered in 1824, proven in 1859 and quantified in 1896. Anthropogenic global warming is probably the most thoroughly peer reviewed scientific theory in history. Over 10,000 papers, most of which had already been peer reviewed, went through four more levels of review by 2500 climate scientists at the IPCC. There were over 90,000 comments. AR4 released in 2007, would be mostly science from 2005 and earlier, as it takes time to compile the report and review all the research. There is now five more years of confirming research, not to mention a rapidly melting Arctic and other direct evidence of warming effects and acidifying ocean.* And along with the climate change denial spiel, comes the criticism of renewables, how it will ruin the economy etc. Of course, global warming could flat out end the economy. Think food shortages, for starters. *Inhoffe is a danger in the air also. I'm referring to his recent incident, landing his plane on a closed runway full of workers. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) gets more oil money political donations than any other senator. Joe Barton (R-Texas) gets the most in the House.

Why are they only targeting people of Indian origin for insider transactions. First it was Raja Ratnam, now it's Gupta. Are these merely scapegoats ? Because any child can tell you that Wallstreet is rife with insider trading (WS hand in glove with company insiders as is CBOE, Hedge funds, Financial institutions and even big brokers. Not to mention the Media. And I can't leave out the big daddy of all. The government. Need I even mention the Politicians that make deals with WS insiders all the time ? And not just lobbying. But letting in on trade secrets , regulations and statue information leaking, like for eg: the recent regulation applying and lifting of ban on Deep water drilling etc.. Guess how many political insiders in collusion with WS insiders benefited from that ??

I could go on.. but this is a stinking mess of a culture. The only good thing that has come out of the entire western civilization is an advancement in emperical sciences. Even though some of that is a straight copy/paste from esoteric knowledge of ancient eastern civilizations, only with western labels. But the worst part is that this western greed and lack of ethics is contagious and is now spreading and infecting the East who may also have to follow suit if they have to survive in such a market place.

I have been following solar stocks for many years now and seeing the clear pattern of manipulation in these stocks, . As we saw solar companies show continued growth and profitability even in the years of the worse economic crisis, stock prices were manipulated on the downside without rhyme or reason. It's a wonder that nothing have been done regarding the blatant short-selling that has been going on in Wall Street. The truly sad pattern of greed over the common good of society as a whole that we've witnessed first-hand in the housing crisis is being played out to equally devastating effect here if we allow Wall Street and the fossil fuel industries to dictate solar stock price movements that is based not on "free market" forces but by outright manipulation by such "money-rich" opponents of the clean-energy industry..

While the United States should be working towards addressing the Climate Change issue, we are definitely working in the wrong direction if we allow clean-energy companies to be pawns in the trade-deficit debate. Addressing environmental concerns should take precedent over who has the most to gain but rather can we finally have a world directive that allows us to cut CO2 emissions using technological solutions that work now. We should be approaching it as if we're combating a deadly disease because Climate Change can be seen as being equivalent to one where a worldwide effort by every country should be encouraged in finding solutions instead being hindered by such man-made abstractions as politics, trade-deficits, or just simply greed. If we can compare our civilization to that of the ancient Romans and let corruption and folly overtake survival and wisdom, we run the risk of falling just like they did. Only here, the decisions we make regarding the environment in the United States will have a far-reaching effect the world over.

Great article, great blogs. I agree with rlil6: write to the IR directors in the chinese solar stocks and suggest that they all combine their efforts and investigate the naked short sellers and rumour mongers. At the very least they could embarrass them, and if they were to litigate, it would probably get alot of attention and may even dissuade all but the most committed WS crooks.The IR director at STP is rory@suntech-power.com and I'm emailing him now. If you know the email addresses of any of the directors in any of these companies, please add it and i'll email them as well.

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